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Curiosity: A Mars robot for our times

IT MAY be the first time that a crowd has gathered in front of the big screens in Times Square to cheer on a robot – in this case, NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, which successfully touched down earlier this week (see “Where next? Curiosity’s scientific priorities on Mars“). The New York crowd’s jubilation was repeated around the world, both in the flesh and online.

The combination of tweets purportedly sent by the rover, pictures posted from Mars and live video of the very human reactions at mission control, provoked such enthusiasm as to cast doubt on the argument made by advocates of human spaceflight that robotic explorers can never be as engaging as astronauts.

It may be a long time before we put humans on the Red Planet. But for a generation raised online, interacting with robots this sophisticated, the wait may prove surprisingly easy to endure.